I was interviewed for GameInformer’s February ‘11 issue for an article titled “Widening The Scope: A Look At Racial Diversity in Video Games”.

My bit was specifically looking at the need to diversify who gets to make games. And, that stemmed from the workforce demographics research released back in 2005 when I was serving the IGDA, which quantified the glaring homogeneity of game developers. (Sad side note that the IGDA has yet to re-run that research.)

As expected, the article has the usual quote about not caring if someone is purple as long as they have the needed talent. In that regard, my thinking is that “being different” is in fact talent - not in the traditional/usual sense, but definitely of merit.

The Medici Effect was a particularly inspiring book in making the case for diversity. Not directly, however, as the book never discussed diversity in the usual political context, but rather discusses how the intersection of two different things (cultures, disciplines, markets, etc) is what brings about truly breakthrough innovation.